Friday, October 27, 2006

A little light(weight) reading

The library on the International Space Station is about to expand by two volumes. Charles Simonyi, who made his billions leading teams that developed Microsoft Word and Excel, will be the fifth tourist to visit the ISS following his March 2007 Soyuz launch. Simonyi, who booked his $20-million-plus flight through the firm Space Adventures, plans to deliver two books to the ISS.

His choices? Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's Faust (in German and English) and Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

"I think that every place where educated people congregate should have some books," Simonyi told me. "I'm exercising my freedom as a spaceflight participant where I can choose my payload."

In Faust, the title character, a scholar, is on a quest for knowledge and makes a pact with the devil - where the devil will obey Faust on Earth and Faust will do the same for the devil in hell if the devil can make him want a moment to last forever.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is an interesting choice because it features a lunar colony in 2076 that revolts against Earth. Will it plant revolutionary ideas in the minds of astronauts far from home?

Former ISS resident Susan Helms brought heavy tomes like Gone with the Wind and War and Peace with her, along with some Russian detective novels, while her colleague James Voss (pictured above) took along The Last of the Mohicans.

So if you had the chance, what one book would you bring with you into space?

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